Virat Kohli stands as a pillar for MS Dhoni at the post match conference

Skipper Virat Kohli has come in defence of the ageing Mahendra Singh Dhoni when the latter needed the most. Critics have raised their voices recently questioning the place of MS Dhoni in the Indian team. Many people believe and have voiced their opinions asking MS Dhoni to consider his retirement and pave way for the youngsters.

But Virat Kohli has taken a guard in front of the legendary captain and has replied back harshly.  Virat made it clear that Mahi is an indispensable part of the team. “He is striking the ball beautifully, you don’t need to tell him anything in terms of how to play a situation, how to build an innings,” said Kohli at the post-match conference after India’s series win in the Caribbean.

Dhoni played a much important knock of 78 runs in the third ODI when his team needed the most. His gutsy performance rode India to a respectable total of 251 runs and the Indian bowlers finished the job brilliantly. But the 4^th ODI saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni struggle at the crease as he scored 54 runs consuming 114 deliveries.

Dhoni, who has always been known for his aggressive and destructive batting had a tough time on the field finding runs. This raised a lot of questions about Dhoni’s future in the team with the age factor, not on his side. But Virat Kohli silenced the voices by mentioning that it was not only Dhoni who found it difficult to score on the lethargic tracks in the West Indies, but he himself had a tenacious time.

Kohli’s take on Dhoni’s form in the nets:

When a journalist mentioned that Dhoni was not looking in the best shape in the nets, Kohli said “You have to figure out what kind of wickets you are playing on as well. I was trying to hit the spinners a couple of days in practice and I couldn’t because the wickets were not that great to play strokes, the wicket in the centre was much better.

“You can’t really judge a guy’s batting form at practice because you don’t know what kind of wickets you are going to get.” added Kohli.

“If the bounce is not ideal then obviously you have to keep defending the ball and keep rotating strike. I think it was only in the last game he couldn’t rotate the strike and before that he got a brilliant 70 or 80 odd not out.” continued Kohli.

Kohli highlighted Dhoni’s tremendous knock against the Sri Lankans in the Champions Trophy and asked the journalists not to judge a player of Dhoni’s stature by only one match.

“In the Champions Trophy against Sri Lanka he played a brilliant knock, in the first game as well he played a brilliant knock here when it wasn’t rained out.”

He further said, “I think we get too impatient by just one game, one knock. That can happen to anyone, any batsman can struggle and any batsman can get stuck on the crease, it happens to everyone even if you are in top form it can happen to you so.

“I don’t think there are any issues because you see the knocks around, he is striking the ball beautifully and the strike rate is close to 100, if not over 100. So, not bothered by anything at all,” Kohli concluded.